By Judith Kohler/AP

A power struggle is brewing as state regulators consider increasing oversight of Colorado’s second-largest electricity provider to help the state move toward a clean-energy future.

Regulators are taking comments on proposals that range from continuing their hands-off approach to Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association to full oversight of the nonprofit’s planning. After going through the comments, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will decide what’s next.

Driving the PUC’s look at Tri-State are concerns about climate change, uncertainty about future development costs and state mandates for more renewable energy. All that warrants a comprehensive look at statewide energy use, the commission says.

But Tri-State questions the commission’s legal authority to oversee its plans. The wholesale electric supplier, based in the Denver suburb of Westminster, stresses that it’s governed by federal agencies and elected boards of the 44 cooperatives it serves in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

“We are regulated by our consumers,” Tri-State spokesman Lee Boughey said. “We think further regulation over our actual resource planning is unwarranted.”

Boughey points to Tri-State’s recent announcements that it’s building a large solar plant in New Mexico and looking at focusing less on coal as evidence that it doesn’t need prodding from state regulators to join in Gov. Bill Ritter’s “new energy economy.”

Ritter, who appointed all three members of the current PUC, praised Tri-State as a leader in the effort while speaking at the association’s annual meeting in April.

Tri-State’s critics say the association has taken some good first steps but lags far behind in renewable energy and energy efficiency. It gets 72 percent of its power from coal and roughly 1 percent from wind and solar.

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